We're just over a week into the 2021-22 men's college basketball season, but we already have surprises, disappointments, victory laps and wrong predictions. While you might say it's too early to truly evaluate anything, I would counter with the fact there's no better time for overreactions and knee-jerk assessments.
After one weekend of the 2020-21 season, it became clear that Jeremiah Robinson-Earl was ready to be a star, and Illinois had maybe the best backcourt in college basketball. But Kentucky also looked the part of a preseason top-15 team, and Arizona State was perhaps the most entertaining team in the country. So yes, some observations that eventually look like ill-advised hot takes are going to come with the territory. Hopefully we limit those, though.
Here's a look at several surprise narratives and potentially noteworthy trends coming out of the first week of the college basketball season -- and whether they have staying power throughout the next four months.